Wednesday, 9 May 2018

A shameless racket

Every public health minister goes native within a few weeks of taking up the job and Steve Brine has been no exception. His Twitter profile picture shows him with ASH's chief prohibitionist Deborah Arnott grinning over his shoulder. It is apt.

The new national agency in charge of public health in
England has backed proposals to establish a minimum price on a unit of
alcohol to try to curb the harmful effects of drinking.

Public
Health England, which is set to take on national responsibility for
tackling public health challenges from 1 April, said that the available
evidence supported the introduction of a minimum price per unit of
alcohol and urged the government to use this evidence as its guide, as
ministers weigh up whether to implement the measure.

So who's been given the job of evaluating this policy for Steve Brine? I dare say you've already guessed.

"I am commissioning Public Health England to undertake a review of the evidence for minimum pricing in England."

It's not the corruption. I'm used to the corruption. It's how shameless it all is. There is so little attempt to disguise the fact that they are rigging the system and laughing all the way to the bank as they do it.

In summary,
empirical evidence and modelling studies have shown that setting a
minimum price for alcohol
can
reduce alcohol-related harm while saving health-care
costs.

So of course Public Health England is going to say that minimum
pricing is a great idea. They have always said it is a great idea. You might as well get Nicola Sturgeon to
evaluate it.

Public Health England is a glorified pressure group and we know for a fact that it is hand in glove with the temperance lobby. Last year I witnessed Rosanna O'Connor, PHE's Director of Alcohol, Drugs & Tobacco, giving evidence to one of Sarah Wollaston's rinky-dink select committees. The anti-drink campaigner Nick Sheron was literally whispering the answers into her ears as she did it. It was pitiful to watch.

About Me

Writer and researcher at the Institute of Economic Affairs. Blogging in a personal capacity.
Author of Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism (2015), The Art of Suppression (2011), The Spirit Level Delusion (2010) and Velvet Glove, Iron Fist (2009).

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."